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Former Chinese Vice-President dead

BEIJING: Former Vice-President Rong Yiren, a onetime textile magnate who joined China's communist government and helped to launch Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, earning the nickname ``Red Capitalist,'' has died at age 89, the Government announced on Thursday. Mr. Rong died on Wednesday night in Beijing of illness, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It didn't give any other details. Mr. Rong, whose family textile and flour businesses employed 80,000 people, stayed in China after the 1949 revolution and handed over his fortune to the communists. He was persecuted during the ultraleftist 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but rehabilitated in 1978 when then-supreme leader Deng invited him to help launch reforms. Deng called Mr. Rong his ``Red Capitalist.'' Mr. Rong created the Government's China International Trust and Investment Corp., or CITIC. It became China's most respected international business organisation, with holdings in companies abroad ranging from Hong Kong banks to Australian aluminium smelters. Mr. Rong later served as a Vice-Premier and was named Vice-President in 1993, becoming China's highest-ranking non-communist official. He held that post until 1998.

AP

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